Is using ODBC the recommended method for accessing data from database files in PHP, or are there alternative approaches?

Using ODBC is one of the methods for accessing data from database files in PHP, but there are alternative approaches such as using PDO (PHP Data Objects) or MySQLi extension. These alternatives provide more flexibility, better performance, and improved security compared to ODBC.

// Using PDO to access data from a database file
try {
    $pdo = new PDO('sqlite:/path/to/database.db');
    $stmt = $pdo->query('SELECT * FROM table_name');
    
    while ($row = $stmt->fetch()) {
        // Process data here
    }
} catch (PDOException $e) {
    echo "Error: " . $e->getMessage();
}